AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Stake Increased by HM Payson & Co.

HM Payson & Co. grew its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 6.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 615,703 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 37,287 shares during the period. AbbVie comprises approximately 1.9% of HM Payson & Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. HM Payson & Co.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $109,410,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,147,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $424,014,000 after acquiring an additional 6,810 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 20.3% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 2,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $397,000 after acquiring an additional 339 shares in the last quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 12.8% during the third quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,910 shares of the company’s stock worth $377,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 12.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,487,363 shares of the company’s stock worth $491,204,000 after acquiring an additional 273,078 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Consolidated Planning Corp raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 12.8% during the third quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp now owns 2,088 shares of the company’s stock worth $412,000 after acquiring an additional 237 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on AbbVie from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on AbbVie from $224.00 to $239.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Daiwa Capital Markets lowered AbbVie from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $180.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Leerink Partners upgraded AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on AbbVie from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $211.45.

AbbVie Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:ABBV opened at $214.55 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $378.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.58. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $187.63 and its 200-day moving average is $187.59. AbbVie Inc. has a 52-week low of $153.58 and a 52-week high of $215.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.66.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.98 by ($0.82). AbbVie had a net margin of 7.59% and a return on equity of 296.28%. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.79 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 273.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AbbVie news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total transaction of $310,032.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,202,751.92. This trade represents a 20.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Timothy J. Richmond sold 29,917 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.90, for a total transaction of $6,070,159.30. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,985,223.60. This represents a 40.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 56,439 shares of company stock valued at $11,377,057 over the last three months. 0.25% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About AbbVie

AbbVie Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Humira, an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behçet's diseases, and pyoderma gangrenosum; Skyrizi to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic disease, and Crohn's disease; Rinvoq to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, atopic dermatitis, axial spondyloarthropathy, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease; Imbruvica for the treatment of adult patients with blood cancers; Epkinly to treat lymphoma; Elahere to treat cancer; and Venclexta/Venclyxto to treat blood cancers.